03 Sep SHOFTIM: IF JUDAISM IS IMMUTABLE, HOW CAN IT BE RELEVANT? A TALE OF TWO TORAH’S: THE TIMELESS AND THE TIMELY

The King’s
Torah’s
In this week’s parsha,
Shoftim, the Torah
teaches us a
fascinating mitzvah
concerning every
Jewish King:
18 And it will be, when he sits upon his royal
throne, that he shall write for himself a copy
of this Torah on a scroll from [that Torah
which is] before the Levitic kohanim.
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read
it all the days of his life, so that he may learn
to fear the Lord, his G-d, to keep all the words
of this Torah and these statutes, to perform
them.
Asks the Talmud:
Every Jew is obligated to write a Torah Scroll
(Sefer Torah), as the Torah states
explicitly (“And now, write for yourselves
this song, and teach it to the Children of Israel.
Place it into their mouths, in order that this
song will be for Me as a witness for the
children of Israel.” The Talmud understands it
as an obligation to write the entire Torah). If
so, why does the Torah give a separate
mitzvah for the king to do this?
The Talmud explains that the Torah is
instructing the Jewish leader to write not one,

but two Torah Scrolls. One travels with him
wherever he goes, and one remains
permanently at home, in his private treasury.
But why? What’s the point of the king having
two Sifrei Torah?
Timeless and Timely
There is, perhaps, a profound message
here. The Leader must hold on to two Torah’s,
as it were. One remains in his treasure chest;
the other travels with him wherever he goes,
in the words of the Mishnah: “He goes to
battle, and it goes with him; he enters the
palace and it enters with him; he sits in
judgement, and it sits with him. He sits down
to eat, and the Torah is there with him.”
There are two elements to Torah: On one hand
Torah represents the unwavering truth that

remains unchangeable, unbendable, un-
phased by the flux of time, space and history.

Shabbos never changes. Tefilin, matzah,
shofar, sukkah, mikvah, mezuzah, the text of
Torah, the bris milah—these are eternal,
unchangeable, Divine laws and truths. The
same delicious or horrible “stale” matzah we
ate 3300 years ago in the desert we still eat in
the 21st century in New York, Miami, and Los
Angeles. The same ram’s horn we blew two
millennia ago is still blown today the world
over. The same tzitzis, the same Shabbos, the
same Yom Kippur, the same kosher laws, the

same conversion laws, the same Torah.
But there is another element to Torah—its
ability to give perspective and guidance to
each generation according to its unique needs,
challenges, struggles and experiences. Each
generation is different. The issues that plagued
us a half-century ago are not the issues we
confront today, and conversely: today we
have dilemmas never experienced before in
history. Our bodies, psyches, souls,
sensitivities, and environments are different.
Our world has changed in significant ways.
Torah must also be a blueprint and luminary
to the unique journeys of each milieu, to the
climate of each generation, to the ambiance of
every era, to the sensitivities of each age, to
the yearnings of every epoch.
Yeshayahu HaNavi says:
My Lord has granted me a tongue for teaching,
to understand the need of the times, to give
knowledge to those who thirst for knowledge.
A Jewish leader—and every one of us is a
leader in our own individual way—must have
two Torah’s. One Torah remains immune to
change. One pristine Torah Scroll never
leaves the ivory tower of the king’s treasury
house. It speaks of truths of life and of G-d
that are timeless. It transcends borders of
time, geography, and people.
The Kilogram
There was once a report concerning ‘The
Kilogram’ in Paris. ‘The Kilogram’ is a
calibrated weight by which all other
kilograms in the entire world are measured.
It is kept in triple layered glass casing, to
ensure that it is in no way influenced by the
elements. Unfortunately, scientists are afraid
that this standard kilogram has been losing
some mass over the years. This, at least
theoretically, has ramifications for all types
of commerce throughout the world. The pure
kilogram standard must never become
corrupted!
The famous Maggid of Dubno once told the
story of a country boy whose fame as an
archer had spread far and wide. A delegation
of the finest archers traveled to his farm
estate in order to see for themselves if the
rumors were true. As they approached the
estate, they observed hundreds upon
hundreds of trees, each one painted with a
target, and in the center of each bullseye
there was a single arrow. Amazed at the
sight, they asked the lad how it was that he
had become such a fine shooter. He replied
plainly that he would shoot the arrow first
and then paint the target around it.
This is the error some make with Torah. You
can’t just keep on adjusting Torah to your
predefined positions and desires. If Torah is
truth, it is true in all times and in all places. If
it is not true, who needs it all together?
But it is not enough to just teach a timeless
Torah. A leader must also find in Torah the
language of G-d to this particular generation,
to this individual person, to this unique
situation, to this singular struggle, to this
mindset and weltanschauung. Torah has the
capacity to speak to the timely as much as to

the timeless, to the modern as much as to the
ancient, to the future as much as to the past, to
the things that are always in flux as much as to
those that remain unchangeable.
To Find Your Bio in Torah
This is also the deeper meaning of the Torah’s
words: “And it shall be with him and he
should read it all the days of his life in order
that he learn to fear G-d, to observe all the
words of this Torah…”
The Torah is telling us more than just the fact
that the king has to read the Torah throughout
the days of his life. The actual literal
translation reads: “He should read in it all the
days of his life.” This means that the Jewish
leader must be able to see in Torah a
perspective for “all the days of his life,” for
everything that transpires in his life and in the
life of his people. He has to read in it (v’kara
bo) his entire biography (kol yemei chayav),
all the events of his life. Every new situation
has a perspective from Torah, guidance from
G-d’s blueprint for life.
The Balance
It is not always an easy balance. How can the
same Torah address both the timeless and the
timely? If it was relevant 3000 years ago how
can it still be relevant today?
The answer is: Since the Torah comes from
the Creator of the world, He embedded into
the Torah all the changes, developments and
fluctuations of history. The Torah is the
Divine blueprint not only for timeless truths,
but also for timely issues and questions—it
speaks to each generation addressing its
dilemmas and concerns.
The late Israel Shenker, a New York Times
reporter, interviewed the Lubavitcher Rebbe
for his 70th birthday. Here are his words
published in April 1972, in The Times:
“To the suggestion that his orthodoxy marks
him as a conservative he [the Rebbe] objected,
saying: ‘I don’t believe that Reform Judaism
is liberal and Orthodox is conservative. My
explanation of conservative is someone who
is so petrified, he cannot accept something
new. For me, Judaism, or halacha [Jewish
religious law], or Torah, encompasses all the
universe, and it encompasses every new
invention, every new theory, every new piece
of knowledge or thought or action.
“Everything that happens in 1972 has a place
in the Torah, and it must be interpreted, it
must be explained, it must be evaluated from
the point of view of Torah even if it happened
for the first time in March of 1972.”
These are the “Two Torah’s” a Jewish king—
and by extension every Jewish teacher and
leader—must possess.